


Lights, Camera, Six-Second-Actions

by roswyrm



Series: and they were ACTORS! (oh my god they were actors) [1]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Bertie is likeable in this and you're all WELCOME, Everyone Is Alive, Families of Choice, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Social Media, Spoilers, Team as Family, please dont read this if ur not caught up, so many spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 06:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19806754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roswyrm/pseuds/roswyrm
Summary: Erasing the Lineis a TV show directed and written by Oscar Wilde.CAST LIST:Diana Caligost: Sasha RackettRydvic Pike: Zolf SmithSir Oliver "Ollie" O'Neil: Bertrand MacGuffinghamAmoun Kassiya Tsekani Bitar: Hamid al-TahanOscar Wilde: Oscar WildeIlikx de Quibbox: Grizzop drik Acht AmsterdamOnye: Azubuike Nso





	Lights, Camera, Six-Second-Actions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blacksatinpointeshoes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacksatinpointeshoes/gifts).



> hello. i have nothing to say for myself. this is what happens when i get an idea and message zoe abt it, bc they're a goddamn enabler. enjoy.

_RYDVIC: If we didn’t need a tank, I think I’d throw you out the window right about now._  
_SIR OLIVER: Also, who would give you a glowing review during the interview, hm?_  
_RYDVIC: (two seconds from a’drowning) Glowing rev– gods, it is not the time for this._

Zolf’s forgotten his line. It’s an important line, too, one that’ll keep the plot moving, and Zolf has completely blanked. So he gets to his feet, wipes the fake blood from his nose, and improvises. He got quite good at that, with Feryn, but the Smith brothers really are more known for their comedy, so what comes out is, “I’ll let that slide, because he did have a really nice bum.”

The entire cast loses it.

Zolf does too, but more out of embarrassment than anything else. “Fuck,” he laughs, “fuck, Wilde, I’m so sorry!” Sasha, in particular, has dropped to the floor and begun rolling.

Oscar Wilde, the director, writer, executive producer and man whose arse Zolf just complimented, is laughing just as hard as anyone. With tears of hysterics in his eyes, “You think I have a nice bum?” Bertie is in danger of breaking Sir Oliver’s armour if he doesn’t straighten up soon; the waist isn’t meant to be bent like that, and the gauntlets aren’t meant to be slammed into the knees quite so hard.

“I mean,” Bertie gasps, “you do! But that should have been my line!” Zolf hides his face in his hands like maybe that will make the problem go away. He knows it won’t, but he can try.

* * *

_A boomerang on Bertie’s Snapchat. It zooms in on Amoun, a halfling who stands at about three foot two, swatting panickedly with dragon hands. It then pans to Hamid, the actor who plays him despite being literally twice as tall, lounging in a bean bag chair and adjusting the Bugles on his fingers so that it looks like he has salty claws. It is captioned “MOVIE MAGIC!!”_

* * *

_An unofficial compilation of Hamid’s Snapchat story, posted on Youtube. It is titled “Sir Oliver is CANCELLED” and was put together by PanAmoun._

[Hamid is filming Bertie writing “I HATE” above his character’s name on his trailer so that it reads, “I HATE Sir Oliver” while the (slightly) larger man complains.

BERTIE: Everyone loves him, Hamid!  
HAMID: (trying not to laugh) Mmhm?  
BERTIE: He’s the worst! Rich people are all the worst, but him especially!  
HAMID: Mm.  
BERTIE: He’s double sexist! He’s a misogynist, and he fetishises men! He’s _awful,_ Hamid, and everyone still draws porn of him!

Hamid is startled into laughter, and the video cuts off.]

[Hamid is filming, but this time it’s Zolf with a blue Expo marker writing on Bertie’s trailer. He’s adding “so much” underneath so that the whole sign reads, “I HATE Sir Oliver so much” and Hamid is trying very hard not to giggle.

HAMID: Do you think you should have asked permission?  
ZOLF: Knowing him? He’ll probably thank me.  
HAMID: If he notices anything has changed.  
ZOLF: Well, then I guess it doesn’t matter that I didn’t ask.

Hamid scoffs in amusement, and Zolf turns over his shoulder to smile fondly back at him.]

[Hamid is filming Bertie’s trailer. Someone has crossed out Bertie’s original addition so that it now reads, “everyone HATEs Sir Oliver so much”

HAMID: I didn’t catch anyone doing this, but I’m willing to bet it was Sasha. I think Oscar would add more curlicues to his letters.

Hamid takes a few steps forward, takes out a Sharpie, and adds three exclamation points to the sign so that it finally reads, “everyone HATEs Sir Oliver so much!!!”

HAMID: (proudly) There we go! Perfect.]

_The video has over a million views, and several thousand likes._

* * *

INTERVIEWER: Are we ever going to see what Sir Oliver got up to after losing Brutor?  
WILDE: Yes, actually!  
HAMID: I directed the Ollie side quest. It’s awful; I hated every second of it.  
WILDE: I had so much fun!  
HAMID: I tried to explain what dailies were to an actor who’s been in multiple films of international acclaim because I forgot he wasn’t actually the dumbest man alive.  
WILDE: That’s precisely why I had so much fun.  
INTERVIEWER: International acclaim?  
WILDE: Oh, yes, he owed me a favour. I’d pay special attention to the paladin, if I were you. He’s rather a… a _keystone_ to the entire production.  
HAMID: [groaning]

* * *

_[SIR OLIVER points at the unnamed paladin (Christopher Hemsworth, Chris for short) again, very annoyed.]_

_SIR OLIVER: You are a source of great irritation._

“...with lovely eyes,” Bertie continues. Hamid, sat in the director’s chair, looks at the script book.

_CHRIS:(literally holier-than-thou) Oh, stop it._

“Oh, stop it,” Ed says, sounding extremely pleased at the flattery. This is very quickly going off the rails. 

Tjelvar looks both exasperated and confused, but he manages to do it in character. Hamid looks at the script book some more, trying to contain his laughter as Bertie ad-libs spectacularly. It’s still Oscar’s writing, even if Hamid is the one directing, but Hamid is perfectly alright with letting Bertie come up with his own lines as long as the plot still moves on. “Eyes a man could drown in,” Bertie goes on, “if he were foolish enough to think he could swim in eyes.” Hamid bites hard on the inside of his cheek to stifle his laughter. Tjelvar looks less confused, but now he just seems tired of Sir Oliver’s antics. Or possibly Bertie’s. It’s hard to tell, sometimes. “Cheekbones a man could juice a lemon on.” None of this is anything _near_ what Oscar wrote, but Hamid has to admit, it’s significantly more hilarious. “Little shell-like ears… if one wanted to stick one’s tongue in a shell for some reason.”

Hamid squeaks.

Tjelvar reaches out to tap Bertie on the shoulder. “Um,” he begins, but Bertie is apparently not done yet.

“Skin like honey, in the sense that I… would put it all in a jar.”

 _“Um,”_ repeats Tjelvar, but he’s interrupted by Ed leaning into his space.

_CHRIS: What’s going on?_  
_ISSUU: I think he’s flirting with you for some reason._  
_CHRIS: Oh, right._

The rest of the scene goes off without a hitch, though Hamid spends most of it staring at Bertie and being vaguely baffled and very exasperated.

* * *

Bertie flops down on the floor of Hamid’s trailer like the overdramatic mess he is and wails, “My husband is going to be _so mad at me.”_

Hamid laughs as he finishes wiping off his makeup. “It’s Ed Keystone, Bertie. I think he’ll understand.”

“I told him I wanted to lick his ear! Did you hear the bit where I told him I wanted to lick his ear? It was terrible, and I’m going to move to the Alps. The _Alps,_ Hamid, the ones in Switzerland, and I’m going to hide there for the rest of my life. _I said I’d like to put his skin in a jar, Hamid.”_

Hamid raises an eyebrow at him with an expression that can only be described as ‘you are so lucky I love you.’ Patiently, he says, “Yes, I was there for that.” Bertie groans. Hamid nudges him with his foot. “Stop squirming. You’ll squish my fruit basket!”

* * *

_An Instagram post from Tjelvar’s account. He is looking into the camera, completely deadpan, with grey paint applied to about half of his face and his solid-black contacts already put in. In the background, Bertie leans on a wall, looking like he’s trying to chat up Ed. Ed has a pleasantly dull expression on his face, and only a third of his armour is actually_ on, _which may or may not be due to Bertie’s intervention, because he is holding onto a gleaming gold pauldron. The post is captioned, “Off-screen, in-character. #saveme”_

* * *

_A behind-the-scenes video, posted to the official Youtube channel. Hamid is lying down on a metal table, getting makeup applied to his arm to make it look like it's been cut open._

HAMID: See, this is what private healthcare does!  
CAMERAMAN: [laughter]  
HAMID: I thought I should say what Bertie would, if he were here. If he were, say, nodding along behind the camera vigorously.

_The camera pans. Bertie is stood in full plate armour, nodding vigorously._

* * *

INTERVIEWER: Now, no spoilers, obviously.  
HAMID: Obviously.  
INTERVIEWER: But what would you say was your favourite filming experience?  
HAMID: Oh… that’s a tough one, we’ve been doing a lot of fun things for season two! But, um, I-I think there’s one scene, at the beginning of Paris? Almost right where we left off… it’s a very emotional scene between Rydvic and Amoun– I don’t know how much I can say. [laughter] Um, I cried a bit?  
INTERVIEWER: Oh, wow.  
HAMID: Yeah. It’s really– really something, and I can’t wait for people to see it! We held hands, it was wonderful.  
INTERVIEWER: Ah, I can only imagine it’ll be fodder for the Rymoun cannons.  
HAMID: I mean, they are [laughing] literally in love with each other, so—  
INTERVIEWER: [laughing] Right, right, of course.

* * *

_[AMOUN reaches out and sets a careful hand on RYDVIC’s shoulder through the blanket.]_

_[Beat.]_

_RYDVIC: (coldly) Are you done?_

_[AMOUN sighs, stands up, and strides out of the room, misty-eyed. He won’t let RYDVIC hear him cry. Not now.]_

“Cut,” Wilde calls. 

Hamid groans in relief. Zolf breaks out into laughter from beneath the blanket, (Hamid missed his shoulder and patted him directly on the forehead) and Hamid stalks back over to sit down on the bed he’s spent the past half hour looking at resentfully. Zolf sits up as Hamid sniffs, “If we have to do this scene again, I’m actually going to start crying.” Zolf grins up at him, and Hamid whines, “I carry all of the emotions here! All you have to do is lay there and sulk!”

Zolf scoffs, eager as always to bicker with his co-star while Wilde looks over the footage. “Rydvic lost a _leg,_ Hamid. He’s going through a major depressive episode, leave him alone.”

“Your whole character arc is just one giant leg,” Hamid snips, and Zolf rolls his eyes. “I’m considering chopping off the other one.”

“What, like enforced method acting?”

“Exactly like enforced method acting.”

“Pretty sure Amoun did it on accident.”

“I could probably pay Sasha to make it look like one.”

* * *

_[DIANA flips over the skylight, right through the archer’s range, and stabs him in the throat. Arterial blood goes absolutely everywhere. If SIR OLIVER were conscious, he’d probably golf clap.]_

Sasha flips _into_ the archer, and they both tumble to the ground in a heap of black limbs and swearing. Wilde stands up from his chair and rushes forward, picking up the actress carefully. “Ow,” Sasha hisses, “see; usually, I can do that! Fuck! Sorry, Jerrold.” Jerrold, the usual stunt-double and current archer, waves a hand, cracking his back as he stands up. Wilde doesn’t say anything, but Sasha can see the worry in his eyes. “Bad day,” she says quietly.

“Do you need a break?”

She snorts. “Think I just gave Jerrold one.” Wilde gets a wry twist to his lips that doesn’t entirely disguise his concern. Sasha puts a hand on his shoulder (she gets up on her tiptoes, and he leans down a bit) and says, “I’m alright, Wilde. I’d tell you if I wasn’t.” Wilde’s just about the only one who knows about her chronic pain, and they’ve bonded over how hard it is to get out of bed in the mornings. Or, in Wilde’s case, get into bed instead of staying up for another three hours writing and feeling his eyes droop slowly shut but not being tired enough to sleep.

Wilde puts his hand over hers and squeezes comfortingly. Sasha gives him a small smile and then cracks her knuckles. “Alright, let’s try that again!” Jerrold gets back into position, Sasha readjusts her grip on her daggers. “When you’re ready, Sasha.”

* * *

It doesn’t sink in that Zolf is leaving until they’re all out of costume (sitting in a fucking _Denny’s_ at like, two in the morning) and Wilde gives him the trident. “I thought this got lost somewhere,” Zolf marvels, squinting up at it. It’s taller than he is, by more than a few inches, (because no matter what the editors do in post, _Zolf_ is the short one) but it retracts so that no one would get stabbed by a trident during production. Wilde shrugs, and there’s a moment of silence where they all realise that this is the last time they’re going to see Zolf while he’s a coworker. That Rydvic isn’t a member of the party anymore, that Wilde setting up a subplot about his family is kind of ironic considering that his father’s legacy project is what’s making him leave. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Wilde says, and it’s a beat of warmth between them, these five people who’ve been working together for a year and a bit, these five people who have grown to be better friends than they have any right to be. And then Wilde says, “Seriously, _do not mention it,_ I don’t think I’m actually allowed to give you that,” and the moment isn’t quite _broken,_ but jokes are more comfortable for all of them to deal with, so jokes are what they make.

* * *

_A behind-the-scenes video of the dry-reading for episode sixty-six, posted to the official Youtube channel. Grizzop is sitting where Zolf was, and the video starts with everyone laughing hysterically. It catches Grizzop mid-sentence._

GRIZZOP: (in his ILIKX voice, which is just his voice without a Dutch accent) —at me, I’m a British goblin! I eat garbage and bangers and mash, which are basically the same thing!  
SASHA: Oi!  
GRIZZOP: (in his actual voice) Oh, sorry, have I offended the locals?

_Hamid snorts mid-laugh, which just makes him and Bertie laugh even harder. Wilde looks like he’s laughing through tears, but it’s hard to tell because his face is in his hands._

WILDE: (he didn’t ask for this) I miss Rydvic.  
GRIZZOP: (back in his ILIKX voice) You asked if I could do an accent that wasn’t Dutch!  
WILDE: Out of curiosity! I didn’t expect you to make a cockney goblin!  
SASHA: (trying for a portmanteau) Cock-blin.

_Hamid falls out of his chair scream-laughing. Bertie collapses into the table, and his laughter is so loud it nearly distorts the audio. Grizzop sounds remarkably like his character as he loses his entire shit, cackling like a madman. Wilde is openly weeping but like, in an amused way. Sasha surveys her chaos, looking pleased._

* * *

_An Instagram post from Bertie’s account. The only things in frame are a large, stuffed replica of a raven and Bertie’s hand, flipping it off. The caption reads, “Quoth The Bertrand, ‘FUCK YOU!’”_

* * *

They’re on a break from shooting for episode seventy-eight when Hamid’s phone buzzes. “How is everyone?” Zolf asks over Skype, and his laptop camera is spectacularly shitty, but it’s the first time Hamid’s seen him in months, and he can’t help but smile.

He looks over his shoulder at his crew. Bertie is loudly accusing Oscar of homophobia, Oscar is politely explaining that he’s only Bertiephobic, Sasha’s on set somewhere, (but she was cast as a sneaky rogue for a reason, and Hamid has no idea _where)_ and Grizzop is tonguing at his prosthetic goblin teeth. “We’re alright,” he answers, and then he looks back to his phone with a smile. “We miss you, though.”

The time zone difference means that Zolf is in bed, lit up in that terrible-quality blue light that seems to only come from late-night calls, but his smile is as fond as it ever was when Hamid could see him clearly. “I miss you guys, too.”

* * *

_An Instagram post from Sasha, on Grizzop’s account. It shows Hamid, Gideon, and Liliana (in costume as Amoun, Ellsworth, and Melina) lounging on a couch together. Hamid has his head in Liliana’s lap, and his legs crossed over the other arm of the couch, mouth open as he tells a story, hands blurring in the air above him. Liliana is rolling her eyes fondly. Gideon, who has a book propped up on Hamid’s shins, is giving Hamid a sidelong glance with an expression that can only be described as ‘you are so lucky I love you.’ It has a sepia filter on it, to make it look more old fashioned. The caption reads “university days. (he says they’re not exes. hmm.)”_

* * *

INTERVIEWER: Fans of _Erasing the Line_ , for as much as they hate Sir Oliver—  
BERTRAND: (simultaneously) As they should, hm?  
SASHA: (simultaneously) Yeah, he’s awful.  
INTERVIEWER: —are worried about why you’re leaving the show.  
BERTRAND: Ah! Well, I accidentally ‘knocked up’ a lady, and now I’m taking a leave of absence to deal with the consequences.  
INTERVIEWER: [stunned, awkward silence]  
BERTRAND: That was a joke, I’m _gay._  
SASHA: [highly amused snort]  
BERTRAND: My husband and I adopted, a while back, but due to Mr Smith’s legacy project, I couldn’t leave when I was supposed to.  
INTERVIEWER: (desperately trying to gather himself) Er– yes. Right. Um, thank you, Mr MacGuffingham.  
BERTRAND: Because he’s the worst.  
INTERVIEWER: (realising he’s losing control of the situation) Uh—  
BERTRAND: See, if he hasn’t gotten this _fantastic opportunity_ that benefitted him immensely and made his life better, hm? Do you know what I could be doing?  
SASHA: (genuinely curious) What could you be doing, Bertie?  
BERTRAND: Well, I could be _at home_ with my husband whom I love, frantically attempting to keep our two-year-old daughter from falling down the stairs, but _nope!_ No, I’ve got to “fulfill my contract” and “act” and “overheat in shiny, two-tonne armour covered in falcons” while _Mr Smith_ gets to direct in what is basically his _dream production,_ because he’s a good person who deserves nice things! It’s not bloody fair!  
SASHA: [muffled laughter]  
INTERVIEWER: I… see.

* * *

_A post on Azu’s Snapchat story. Azu is filming herself waiting for her turn to audition, looking nervous. She slowly turns her phone around to show all of the women waiting there with her. Nearly all of them are dark-skinned black women (some of them are lighter-skinned or mixed, but none of them are white) and they’re all absolutely ripped, though some of them look more like bodybuilders than healthily muscled. Azu has placed stickers where their faces are to hide the other women’s identities because she’s considerate like that. It’s captioned, “Tough competition…”_

* * *

_ILIKX: Diana deals with traps like this one all the time, she’s going to be perfectly alright!  
ONYE: (still slurring, very sheepishly) It was hidden!_

Sasha is professional, really, but the way Azu _says it_ makes her break into laughter. “Oh, I just wanna give Onye a continual hug!” Sasha laughs, “She’s so good, and the world should be good for her!”

Azu laughs too, and very quietly, looking directly at Oscar, “It will not be.”

Oscar laughs. (He does not deny that she’s right.)

* * *

INTERVIEWER: How are you most like your characters?  
AZUBUIKE: Well… I really like hugs, and I don’t like small spaces, like Onye. Hamid and Amoun like shiny things! Convincing Hamid not to get his nails done during shooting is a nightmare.  
INTERVIEWER: [polite laughter]  
AZUBUIKE: Grizzop and Ilikx are very no-nonsense, Wilde plays himself more than the author, to be honest—  
INTERVIEWER: [slight laughter] So I’ve heard!  
AZUBUIKE: And Sasha _was_ here, at the beginning of the interview anyway, and now she’s vanished, so I think [laughing] that’s that parallel settled?

* * *

_A behind-the-scenes video of the carriage scene in Damascus, shot from the exterior, posted to the official Youtube channel. The carriage is rolling along on a green screen, the body of it held up by a rather large stand as the wheels spin in midair. It’s on a tilted platform so that the actors can roll down it, and we see it from the front, where Sasha (as Diana) and a goblin coach driver are sitting, so we can see the other camera filming it from the side. The door opens suddenly, and Onye topples out. Ilikx pokes his head out of the door and looks after her as she rolls down the ‘mountain.’_

ILIKX: (highly distressed) Onye, no!

_He leaps out after her, tucking and rolling. Azu, who has stood up outside of the camera’s line of sight and is carefully making sure that her armour isn’t damaged, nearly trips over her costar. They manage to right themselves without falling back into the shot. Amoun makes a noise of confused hysteria. Diana hands the reigns back to the goblin coach driver and then manages to leap from the driver’s seat to the main entrance of the carriage, hanging off the side of it._

DIANA: What was that?  
AMOUN: I don’t know! They just– Onye fell out, and Ilikx jumped after her, a-and—  
DIANA: Oh, alright. See you ‘round, then.  
AMOUN: Wh– I– no, Diana, _wait!_

_Diana does not wait, somersaulting in the same direction that the rest of the party has gone. Azu, who took several paces back in preparation for this, catches Sasha and only stumbles back a few steps. Sasha grins at her, legs wrapped around her waist in a bid not to bounce off of all the armour and go flying. She lowers herself down carefully, and Azu checks her over to make sure the armour’s ornamentation didn’t bruise her too badly. Amoun, the only one still in the carriage, makes a baffled noise of complete and utter exhaustion, staring off down the ‘mountain.’ He blinks slowly. He then shuts the carriage door and closes the blinds. We hear a wine bottle opening and the sounds of an exasperated man beginning to chug straight from the bottle before choking._

HAMID: (coughing) Oh, Jesus! Shit, sorry—

_Hamid gets out of the carriage, a dark green bottle in hand and wine spilt all over the front of his suit. The costume designer (off-screen) makes a pained noise._

HAMID: (still coughing) This is real wine, I—  
GRIZZOP: There’s no real wine in the carriage, that would be irresponsible!

_Hamid, still coughing, gestures at the deep red stain down his front. Grizzop tilts his head._

GRIZZOP: Oh. Well, there _shouldn’t_ be any real wine in the carriage.  
SASHA: Hamid, are _you_ Jesus?  
HAMID: (with slightly less coughing) I’m Egyptian, not Israeli.  
GRIZZOP: And not Jewish.  
SASHA: All I know about religion is ‘Jesus wept’ and Hamid does a lot of that, so.  
GRIZZOP: I mean yeah, but there’s no ‘Jesus vomited.’  
HAMID: [offended coughing]

* * *

_A Tumblr post consisting of pictures from the crew’s assorted social media, compiled by stabromantic-parkoursexual._

1\. An Instagram post from Grizzop’s account, tagging Vesseek. It’s just a blurry photo of two intertwined hands. One of the hands belongs to Ilikx, and is painted black. The other is painted a muddy green. It’s captioned, “Rome’s the worst”  
2\. A post on Azu’s Snapchat story. She and Sasha are out of costume, with Sasha curled up against Azu’s chest, face tucked into her neck. It’s captioned, “i cuddle diana, but at what cost??? rome’s the WORST”  
3\. A post on Hamid’s Snapchat story. It’s a glamorous shot of his face, with detailed brass scales trailing up the sides and covering his nose. He looks nonplused. It’s captioned, “I’m going to blow up the Colosseum, next.”  
4\. A tweet from Wilde. It just says, “In season 3, the party goes to ROME! I hear it’s lovely in this time period. Or, it would be if not for… well, spoilers.”  
_stabromantic-parkoursexual has added the caption “i think theyre trying to tell us something abt rome, guys”_

_A few weeks later, (after season three has dropped) stabromantic-parkoursexual adds the caption, “OH FUCK. OH GOD. OH_ **FUCK** _”_

* * *

“You’re _leaving?”_ Hamid squeaks, brows drawn together with concern.

Sasha sighs, long and hard, and Grizzop squeezes her hand. She says, “I– yeah. I’m just tired, you know? Like, there’s no… no Heart to fix _me,_ Hamid, and it just. Hurts.” They worked this out ahead of time, her and Wilde and Grizzop, sat together at three in the morning, collapsed on top of and around and amidst one another. Sasha’s chronic pain is– well, _chronic,_ and she couldn’t get out of it like Diana had gotten out of being a zombie. All the flips and being carried around by people in uncomfortable armour has only exacerbated it, and it takes an hour to make herself get up in the morning. So she didn’t sleep, and she and Wilde sat in each other’s company, making puns until one of them collapsed with exhaustion.

And Grizzop wasn’t having it.

So they worked this out, gave Diana a happy ending and Ilikx a noble death, let them both have an out for Sasha’s pain and Grizzop’s new comedy gig. (He says that’s why he’s leaving, at least. He _says_ he wants to give Stellar Firma the attention and dedication it deserves, but they all know it’s because he won’t play the role that Sasha introduced him to without her.) And now Hamid and Azu are finding out, wide-eyed and sad because Wilde assumed someone else told them before now, and it must feel so sudden for them. “We’re still _here,”_ Grizzop blurts out, “I mean, we’re not leaving the country or anything! Just, no more behind-the-scenes stuff.”

Hamid’s lower lip quivers, and Azu’s eyes soften into something like mournful understanding. Sasha groans and spreads her arms for a hug. “You’re all drama queens,” she grumbles as Hamid bursts into tears and stoops down to hug her. Azu joins the hug too, her chin resting on top of Sasha’s head as she tries very hard not to start crying herself. Sasha squints down at Grizzop. “Yeah, you too, c’mon.” Grizzop snorts derisively and pushes Hamid over a bit so he can hug her properly. And they stay like that for god knows how long, this tiny troupe of actors that turned into friends, turned into family, just holding onto one another.

* * *

_[AMOUN clings tightly to ONYE’s waist in the closest approximation of a hug he can give her.]_

_AMOUN: (whispering) She didn’t say zero._

_[ONYE sniffles and hugs him back, trying to remain hopeful in this strange, sad new world.]_

“Cut,” Wilde calls.

Hamid makes a drawn-out noise of exhaustion and sadness, played up for comedic effect because _god_ if they couldn’t use some comedy after that scene, tucking himself further into Azu. Azu laughs, but in the pitying sort of way one might if one saw a small child faceplant into the mulch of a playground in a Funniest Home Video collection. “I feel awful for Amoun,” he explains quietly enough that only Azu can hear him, “because I can go and visit them whenever I feel like it, but he can only visit their graves.”

 _“Hamid!”_ Azu scolds, sounding utterly horrified by this realisation, and Hamid giggles.

* * *

INTERVIEWER: What would you say is in store for the final season of _Erasing the Line_?  
HAMID: (simultaneously) Trauma.  
AZUBUIKE: (simultaneously) So many tears.  
SASHA: (simultaneously) Pain?  
GRIZZOP: (simultaneously) Emotional trauma.  
WILDE: I mean, I think it’s quite lovely.  
HAMID, AZUBUIKE, SASHA, GRIZZOP: [indecipherable accusatory shouting]

**Author's Note:**

> if ur wondering:  
> rydvic is pronounced RIDE-vick  
> ilikx is pronounced EE-licks  
> onye is pronounced OH-nee and is short for onyekachi, bc i knew an onyekachi in like, middle school. she was cool. i was scared of her bc i was a fucking nerd.
> 
> im on tumblr [@roswyrm](https://roswyrm.tumblr.com/) hmu!!! im still doing the bad things happen bingo! in! theory!


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